The invention relates generally to power-driven conveyors and more particularly to a conveyor using a conveyor belt with rollers that are operable to drive conveyed articles backward into registration against selectively raised, regularly spaced flights.
It is often necessary to separate and space articles at regular or known positions on a conveyor belt to provide a constant, regular supply of articles. One example of a system for separating and spacing conveyed articles is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0264757A1,“Systems and Methods for Providing an Improved Timing Conveyor,” to Matthew L. Fourney, published Oct. 30, 2008.In that system, a conveyor belt uses actuatable rollers to accelerate conveyed articles atop the rollers forward until the articles reach the trailing faces of retractable flights positioned at regular spacings on the belt. In this way, the articles are separated and regularly spaced on the belt with each article resting on rollers behind a flight. But, in this conveyor, the only force pushing the articles forward is imparted by the rollers. If the articles encounter enough resistance to forward motion, as they could when undergoing certain processes, the articles can slide on the rollers and slow down or even stop, which affects the regular spacing and can degrade the processing step.